The present invention is directed to a customer loyalty investment program. In one embodiment, the system and method are used in e-commerce. In another embodiment, they may be used for on-line and/or off-line commerce.
Merchants and credit card companies have developed a number of customer award programs in an attempt to enhance customer loyalty. For example, merchants have long offered coupons to customers with the hope that they will be enticed to purchase a product with the coupon and subsequently develop some loyalty to the product or the merchant. More recently, merchants and credit card companies have set up programs where customers earn award points through the purchase of products or services with a credit card. The award points may then be redeemed towards other products or services offered by merchants.
As the Internet has gained in popularity as a shopping destination, similar customer award programs have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,870 describes a fully integrated on-line award program wherein a user earns award points by purchasing products on the offering entity""s web site. The offering entity keeps track of these award points, and they may be redeemed by the user to purchase products from an on-line award catalog displayed on the offering entity""s web site.
Over the years, investment-based customer award programs have also been offered to customers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,026 describes a credit card based customer loyalty program wherein the offering entity determines the total amount of credit card purchases a participating customer has made during a given period, and credits an investment account owned by the customer with up to 10% of that total amount. The offering entity has complete discretion over how the money allocated to the customer is invested. It simply guarantees a percentage return on the investment, or ties the investment to a published interest rate. Importantly, the investment is in no way tied to what products the customers have purchased with the credit card.
Another investment-based customer award program is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,514 to Ayyoubi et al. Ayyoubi et al. describe a customer loyalty program wherein customers receive credit towards the purchase of stock in a given company by sending in UPC labels from products that they have purchased from the given company. The entity collecting the UPC labels authenticates the UPC labels and maintains a computer account that accumulates the amount of credit the customer has earned. The file is kept such that when a customer has accumulated enough credit to purchase a share of stock in the given company, the entity purchases the share in the name of the customer.
This scheme also has flaws. First, the rebate mechanism is cumbersome for both the customers and the offering entity. Customers must remember to cut out UPC labels from product packages and mail the labels to the offering entity to receive any credit for their purchases; and the offering entity has to authenticate, scan, and track the UPC labels. At least in cases where the dollar value represented by a single UPC label is low, the cost of maintaining a customer account is likely to be high relative to the value of the stock accumulating in the customer""s account. Moreover, the customer can invest only in the stock of the companies whose products he has bought.
There thus remains a need for a user-friendly investment-based customer award program that is attractive to both merchants and customers.
In one preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of providing an investment fund comprising the steps of: registering members; receiving rebates from merchants based on purchases made by the members from the merchants; and investing the rebates in the fund; wherein the composition of the fund reflects at least in part the rebates received from the merchants.
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of providing an investment fund based on rebates received from on-line purchases comprising the steps of: registering members; receiving rebates from on-line merchants based on purchases made by the members at the on-line merchants; investing the rebates in the fund; issuing shares in the fund to each respective member based on the rebates received from the on-line merchants as a result of purchases made by that member; and purchasing securities of each respective on-line merchant based on the rebates received from that on-line merchant.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of providing an investment fund based on rebates received from on-line purchases comprising the steps of: registering members using a computer; identifying member purchases made at the on-line merchant sites; receiving rebates from the merchants based on member purchases; investing the rebates in the fund; issuing shares to each member based on the rebates received from merchants as a result of purchases made by that member; for rebates received from public merchants, purchasing securities of each public merchant based on the amount of rebates received from that particular merchant; and for rebates received from private merchants, purchasing securities in the public merchants as a function of the fund""s then existing portfolio.
In still another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a method, using a computer, of directing management of an investment fund based on rebates received from on-line purchases comprising the steps of: registering members using the computer; maintaining storage information including member database information relating to participating members, merchant database information relating to merchants that have agreed to provide rebates for member purchases, rebate database information, and fund database information; receiving rebate data information from the on-line merchants relating to member purchases made at the on-line merchants; updating the stored rebate database information; and generating information relating to the issuance of shares to each respective member based on the rebate data information and information relating to the purchase of securities issued by each respective on-line merchant based on the rebate data information.
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a system for administering an investment fund, comprising: means for registering members; means for receiving rebates from merchants based on member purchases made at the merchants; means for investing the rebates in the fund; means for issuing shares in the investment fund to each respective member based on rebates received as a result of his purchases; and means for purchasing securities issued by each respective merchant as a function of the rebates received from that merchant.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a system for administering an investment fund based on rebates received from on-line purchases comprising: a computer system accessible for on-line communication, the computer system comprising a storage that maintains member database information relating to participating members, merchant database information relating to merchants that have agreed to provide rebates for member purchases, rebate database information, and fund database information; and an instruction generating component that generates information relating to the issuance of shares to each respective member based on the amount of rebates received from merchants as a result of purchases made by that member and also generates information relating to the purchase of securities issued by each respective merchant based on the rebates received from that merchant.
The instruction generating component may be coupled to a FTP server so that the information relating to the issuance of shares is transmitted via a FTP file to a transfer agent who issues shares in the fund. Moreover, the instruction generating component may be coupled to a FTP server so that the information relating to the purchase of securities is transmitted via a FTP file to a broker who purchases the securities. In addition, the instruction generating component may issue the shares and purchase the merchant securities.
The instruction generating component preferably generates the information relating to the issuance of shares and the purchase of securities by querying the stored rebate database information.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a system for administering an investment fund, comprising: a membership registration component for registering members; a rebate tracking component that tracks rebates received from merchants based on purchases made by members at the merchants; and an instruction generating component that generates information relating to the issuance of shares in the investment fund to each respective member based on his respective determined rebates for a given period and generates instructions relating to the purchase of securities issued by each respective merchant as a function of the rebates received from that merchant during the given period.
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a system for administering an investment fund comprising: a membership registration component; a total purchase calculation component that calculates for each member a figure corresponding to that member""s total purchase amount using a credit card during a period of time; a rebate tracking component that tracks rebates received from merchants based on member purchases at the merchants using the credit card; and an instruction generating component that generates information relating to the issuance of shares in the investment fund to each respective member based on their respective determined rebate amounts and the portion of the total purchase amount figure, and information relating to the investment of a portion of the total purchase amount figure and the rebates in the fund.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of providing an investment fund comprising the steps of: registering members; calculating for each member a rebate corresponding to a percentage of that member""s total purchase amount using a program credit card during a period of time; receiving rebates from the credit card issuer based on the rebate figure for each member during the period of time; investing the credit card issuer rebates in the fund; receiving rebates from merchants based on member purchases using the program credit card; and investing the merchant rebates in the fund; wherein the composition of the fund reflects at least in part the rebates received from the merchants. The step of investing the credit card issuer rebates in the fund preferably includes investing the rebates across the fund""s then existing portfolio.
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of providing an investment fund comprising the steps of: registering members; calculating for each member a rebate corresponding to a percentage of that member""s total purchase amount using a program credit card during a period of time; receiving rebates from the credit card issuer based on the rebate figure for each member during the period of time; and investing the credit card issuer rebates in the fund across the fund""s then existing portfolio.
The term xe2x80x9csecuritiesxe2x80x9d is used herein in its broadest sense to refer to stocks, bonds and all other instruments of the types regulated under the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. 776 and under similar international regulations.
These and other features of the present invention will be better understood after reading the remainder of this application.